


Polaroid's Backstory

by Shizukana2203



Category: Original Work
Genre: Death, Gen, Lots and Lots of Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 07:07:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13071705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shizukana2203/pseuds/Shizukana2203
Summary: Or, How To Take A Character You Swore You Weren't Going To Turn Into A Ball Of Angst And Turn Them Into A Ball Of Angst





	Polaroid's Backstory

She hadn't originally been special. Just an object-head in a world full of object-heads. She could take pictures and she didn't have any friends - no big deal.

She hadn't realised that being able to access pocket dimensions on the regular was something unusual.

When that was found out, her world turned upside down. Now she was something, someone. She had become worthy of a name, something she had never even dreamed of! It had to be something unique, something as special as her--

Pictura.

It was _perfect_.

For the first time in her three years, Pictura had a reason to smile.

\---

_Oh Fate oh Fate ohFateohFateohFate--!_

She panted, sprinting as fast as she could to the Tower. Bursting through the door, she drooped to her knees in front of the Council, chest heaving as she fought for breath, signing with shaking fingers.

"I-it's--" *huff* "It's here!"

She was suddenly being shuffled off into the Safe Room while the Council went to go face the demon. She was confused - wasn't this what she had been training for?

She was determined. She could stop the demon, she just knew it! She just had to find it again and use the spell. In fact, there it was! And--

Wait. Where were the Council? She looked around, unable to see the 5 object heads that had been her caretakers for the past three years. A sudden stench caught her attention and she froze. Were...were those...?

They were. Oh Fate, have mercy, those twisted corpses were the Councillors.

She collapsed to her knees, static buzzing around her lenses in her form of tears. The sound of the demon laughing caught her attention and she looked up, glaring at the demon. It had killed the only people who had believed in her, and now it had the audacity to laugh?! The spell was spilling from her mouth before she realised, any misgivings she may have had about her magic levels lost in the face of her determination.

The demon wasn't laughing now. It ran at her, trying to stop her before she could finish the sealing. It got within ten feet of the camera before the spell was completed. A great wave of pain wracked over her and she screamed, her body arching as blinding chains burst from the empty picture frame hovering in front of her. The pain was so much worse than they had led her to believe - she couldn't survive this torture, she was going to go insane!

Darkness swarmed over her vision and she blacked out.

\---

Slowly, she returned to consciousness, her body aching and sore and stiff. Her shoulders and wrists in particular were screaming at her, and as she unshuttered her lenses, she realised why.

She was in the dungeons, chained to the ceiling to hang by her arms.

She shivered, whimpering. What had she done wrong?! As if on cue, a quartet of guards came into view, surrounding a tall object-head in mage's robes - the Guard-Councillor's acolyte, if she weren't mistaken. Suddenly, an image of the Council's broken bodies flashed in front of her and she bit back a sob, static buzzing behind her lenses. The door to her cell opened and the sword-headed acolyte stepped in, an atmosphere of rage exuding from her.

"What. Did you. Do?"

The camera child shook, unable to speak. The acolyte snarled, stepping forward and slapping her roughly.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?! ALL THE COUNCILLORS ARE DEAD, THE DEMON IS IN A PHOTOGRAPH - WHAT IN FATE'S NAME DID YOU _DO_?!"

"That is _enough_!"

Another acolyte burst in, the Head-Councillor's this time. The glass fractal orb stepped between the child and the mage, light bubbling furiously in their head.

"Sarena, I understand you are upset, but this is a child! You had no call to lock them down here or interrogate them - especially not when they saved all our lives!"

"But Arcana--!"

"Don't."

The Head-Councillor's acolyte turned around, a worried look on their face. Carefully, they unlocked her shackles and picked her up in their arms, carrying her out of the cell. She tried to stay awake, but the pain and overwhelming exhaustion were too much for her to bear and she passed out again.

\---

"--danger to us all--!

"--should be with us right now--!"

"--doesn't change--!"

"--saved our lives--!"

"Enough."

Pictura quickly closed her eyes again, breathing steadily even as her heart pounded. Sarena and the Wise-Councillor's acolyte - Markus - had been arguing, clearly about her. Arcana's words were always enough to stop any arguments between them, though. The camera strained her ears to try and catch the Seer's words.

"Pictura saved us. That much is certain. However, it was at great personal cost. The strain of the spell wasn't enough to kill her, but it was enough to break her magic. She will now be limited to storing and accessing pictional pocket dimensions, at present. Given enough time to heal, she may recover the ability to transport people and objects through her pictures, but she will no longer be able to create picture golems or seal anything in her pictures. If she should try, she will harm herself further - that is, if the effort does not kill her outright."

The camera flinched, static welling up in her lenses. Broken? She had _broken_ her magic?

Burying her head in her hands, she sobbed silently. Surely, they would just dump her - after all, what good is a mage whose magic is broken?

\---

They hadn't, thankfully.

But she couldn't help but wonder if it were better if they had.

None of them could ever meet her eyes, even after six years. Not even Arcana, who had otherwise been steadfast in their support of Pictura.

The townspeople were afraid of her. The only exceptions to that were the orphans who had been born during or after it all. She found herself spending more time with them than anyone else.

Then, to her everlasting horror, the seal broke.

She couldn't have expected it to hold forever. But, lying there with a dying child in her arms, she found herself wishing it had.

The child gave a feeble and choked cough that wracked his frame, bloodied fingers clutching desperately at her hand.

"I'm-- I'm s-scared...!"

Static buzzed in her lenses and in her heart, tearing her into tiny pieces.

"It's going to be okay! Just hold on for a little longer!"

"Am...am I gonna...see mommy again...?"

"That's right! So you gotta stay awake, g-gotta keep those eyes open! Can you do that for me?"

"It's...dark...'m tired..."

"Jasper, please, you gotta stay awake, mommy'll be here soon!"

She knew all of their names. Tommy, and his sister Barbara. Jasper, and Mika, and Sammy. Charlotta and Oskar and John and Lucius and Lisa and Olivia and the twins Lilo and Siobhan. Little baby Rosa.

She couldn't save a single one.

\---

In another world, one that seemed many lifetimes away from the one before it, a camera head emerged from nowhere into an alleyway. He cast aside his old identity - Pictura was dead, had died alongside everyone else on that doomed world.

Polaroid stepped out of the alley and walked away.


End file.
